Folks, While we certainly could have roleplayed a conversation between the new companions regarding combat tactics on their way to the warehouse, I recognize that in-game we all wanted to be able to move things along. That said, Mike has informed Steve C. and me that he's likely to be out the next two weeks, which means that the party will be missing a dedicated frontline melee combatant in the form of Mike's paladin for the next few sessions. So I just wanted to raise everyone's awareness that the group's tactics may shift a few times in these first few sessions. And as we're all really squishy at low levels, IMHO the goal is survival first! As a medium armor cleric, Twitch came in with the assumption that she'd serve as backline ranged support. However, as the party is presently configured, Twitch has the highest AC (AC 18) among any of the current PCs. Envy and Lukar are lower AC and definitely should stay away from melee. Legion is apparently a dual-wielder and will therefore be close-in, even though his AC is moderate (AC 17). Yipping also has moderate AC (AC 16) and some close-in melee kobold abilities (pack tactics and grovel). For the short term, Yipping may need to move in reasonably close as well to support Legion--granting and gaining advantage could be a huge assist in the short run. While the typical assumption for a cleric is that they should avoid taking damage so that they're in a position to heal others, it looks like Twitch may also need to wade into melee in the short term from time to time. To be honest, Twitch only has two spell slots per long rest at this low level (in the current combat, she's cast one Bless and is holding the other spell slot for an emergency Healing Word), and so there's not much healing she can do at this stage anyway. And as a group, we chose to go into our first encounter without purchasing additional healing--for good or ill--and only have Twitch and Envy who could potentially heal. We don't have a ton of healing on-hand. Given how squishy the party is at low levels, I think it's important that we not overestimate ourselves. In our current conflict, for example, we've prevailed so far but we now appear to be faced with a tougher opponent who has paused before attacking. If we have a way out of combat that avoids exposing us unnecessarily to additional damage ... IMHO it's probably to our advantage to explore that. We can always use game sessions to discuss tactics further, in character or out, but I felt a little guilty as the party cleric to realize that we came into our first combat without a ton of healing on-hand and no clear understanding of our respective combat roles. Thoughts welcomed!
